CLANCY OVERELL | Editor | CONTACT
Almost 37-years to the day since the destruction of Brisbane’s historic Cloudland Ballroom in Bowen Hills was orchestrated by the Sir Johannes Bjelke-Petersen government – last night QLD Premier Johanna Palaszczuk followed in her political mentor’s footsteps.
This time it was Cloudland the Nightclub, the iconic Fortitude Valley venue that was built in tribute to the aforementioned ballroom.
Palaszczuk has played dumb about the demolition, which was done illegally at 4am to avoid any interference from council or the Queensland heritage register.
However, she did make the mistake of hiring the same demolition firm that Sir Joh hired four decades ago, Queensland’s favourite wrecking ball contractors, the Deen Brothers – known for their chilling slogan ‘All we leave is memories’.
The Deen brothers confirmed their involvement this morning when questioned by reporters at one of Brisbane’s most expensive white shoe stores.
The infamous Deen Bros tore the Cloudland Ballroom down in a secret and brutal assault in the dead of the night, November 7, 1982, sparking outrage across Queensland because it was flat out illegal.
However, while Bjelke-Petersen was able to argue that he wanted to knock down the original Cloudland because his developer mates wanted to build some mediocre apartments in Bowen Hills – it is not yet known why Johanna so eagerly wanted to destroy the new one.
QLD Labor party insiders say it may have been a result of confusion, after Palaszczuk was informed that a group of underpaid Australian climate scientists were staying in the venue.
“Jesus” said one high-ranking Fortitude Valley policeman who asked to not be named.
“That’s pretty crook. It almost feels like she wanted to silence these people. I’m all for locking up protestors, but you can’t knock off scientists simply because they are delivering you facts that disrupt the activities of businesses bidding for contracts with the Adani Carmichael project, which has been identified as the nail in the coffin for the Great Barrier Reef, which represents 90% of all sealife in the world.”
“It’s like the time Sir Joh asked us to plant an underage boy in Chris Masters’ hotel room while he was up here working on the Four Corners exposè into his government’s well-documented bribing syndicate and association with organised crime figures”
